Fist Fight | Film review - Charlie Day and Ice Cube are ready to rumble

(Image credit: © Warner Bros.)

After school. Parking lot. It's on.

It’s the last day of term at sink school Roosevelt High and the rowdy and rebellious students are running amok. Their out-of-control pranks light the fuse for a clash between timid English teacher Andy Campbell (Charlie Day) and surly stickler Ron Strickland (Ice Cube), who browbeats his colleague into agreeing to a fight in the parking lot after school.

Relentlessly foul-mouthed, vulgar and stupid, the obnoxious comedy Fist Fight is enough to make the viewer despair. The filmmakers clearly hope we’ll give the movie a pass for its satirical jibes at America’s underfunded educational system. They should think again, though, if they reckon we’ll end up rooting for Day’s wimpy protagonist as he goes through his various ordeals. He’s such a whiny, self-pitying sneak that it’s hard to care whether or not he gets beaten to a pulp.

Certificate 15. Runtime 90 mins. Director Richie Keen

Fist Fight debuts on Sky Cinema Premiere on 15 December. Available on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from Warner Home Video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E1NALnd5f8

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.